Reforming Saskatchewan’s Biased Sentencing Regime

The over-representation of Aboriginal people in Saskatchewan’s prisons has been growing at an alarming rate, suggesting that Saskatchewan may need to reform its biased sentencing regime. The over-representation of Aboriginal people in Saskatchewan’s prisons is evidence of systemic racial discrimination in our criminal justice system which is costly both economically and socially. James Scott presented the following paper to Saskatchewan Legal Aid in September of 2014 and his suggestions received national attention. His paper outlines the data supporting the conclusion that there is systemic racial discrimination in our criminal justice system and suggests how this discrimination may be addressed: